Social capital and risk level of posttreatment drug use: Implications for harm reduction among male treated addicts in Hong Kong

Abstract

Since relapse is common among treated addicts, harm reduction efforts should be made to minimize their levels of risk in their reuse of drugs. This paper applies the social capital framework to analyze how a treated addict's social network affects the risk level of posttreatment drug use. Embeddedness in a pro-social network reestablished by a treated addict can facilitate positive social capital in the forms of tutelage of a normal life, informal social control from nondrug-using people, and lessening of perceived public discrimination. On the contrary, reentering a network of active addicts can produce negative social capital in the forms of tutelage of the addict lifestyle, lack of informal social control from nondrug-using people, and reinforcement of perceived public discrimination. The possession of positive social capital greatly enhances the treated addict's likelihood to reduce the risk level of posttreatment drug use, whereas the possession of negative social capital reduces such likelihood. Data used in this paper were extracted from a study of 200 male former clients of a voluntary residential treatment agency in Hong Kong. Implications of the findings for helping male treated addicts to generate positive social capital as a posttreatment harm reduction measure are discussed.